Play Style: This list is designed on the classic Luke/Leia + Z6 trooper base, but updated with some new units. Instead of the two laser ATRTs I fielded last season, I took three sniper teams; in order to provide some more backup against armor I equipped impact grenades on my two larger squads. This list also bids heavily, as it was written prior to the Key Positions errata in the recent rulebook update. Overall the core plan is simple - efficient ranged shooting plus strong characters.

Play Style: I went into my event knowing that Scouts and Boba were barely legal. I thought I may see more Imperial players and strike teams due to this fact. I wanted a decently balanced list but did not think there would be very much armor due to the timing of the releases. After seeing the way the terrain was at the past couple of events I thought it was important to be able to be blue player and have more control over the battlefield and objectives. I went with a 14 point bid assuming that would be enough to get blue every game. The way I ended up playing this list was mostly run Luke into as many trooper units as possible and kill as many of them as he can to limit the amount of units my opponent has to take objectives. I find with this set up Luke can almost always get his points back in units destroyed before going down. Leia is amazing against the strike teams and so efficient in the support role for this force that I used her to get up on activations and keep my units performance up. I would use my ATRTs to flank opposite Luke and threaten trooper units and force my opponent to either deal with them or funnel their units into Luke and the Fleet Troopers. I have found in the games I have played that a basic scatter gun fleet trooper squad can take a unit almost completely out of effectiveness with one decent shot. With that I kept them safe until the opportunity presented itself. I try to dig my units into positions where my opponents would have to choose to shoot at armor, cover 2 dodging Rebel Troopers, or at a unit that only has a model or two visible. I was able to do all of these things thanks to the 14 point bid.

Play Style: This list was built to counter an AT-ST imperial list, a triple bike imperial list or the dual laser canon rebel list. I was mostly worried about a mirror match against another rebel player with Luke, Leia and double laser cannons because I have only played against another rebel player twice. So, I wanted an edge in case of that match up and thus I added the rotary cannon ATRT to tip the scales in my favor, vice relying on the 50/50 matchup against dual laser cannons. The small naked units are primarily used to grab objectives and add a needed suppression token to a unit at the right time. I dropped limited visibility because of my laser cannons, dropped battle lines so the triple bike list would have a harder time flanking my forces, and I dropped sabotage the moisture vaporators because I thought it provided my forces the least benefit. I kept disarray in case I ran into a single commander list. I kept long march in case someone had Vader.

In conclusion, I must give a shout out to John B. (Tabletop History on Facebook) (NoVa Troopers), Matt D. (NoVA Troopers), Raul R. (NoVA Troopers) and Kyle D. aka Orkimedes (never tell me the odds blog) (NoVA Troopers) for all qualifying to nationals with undefeated records. Congrats Team 5 for 5!!!

Play Style: This set up is meant to be split between two objectives. Leia gets 1 Fleet, 2 full Rebel Troopers and an ATRT. Luke gets 1 Fleet 1 Rebel Trooper (the one minus the extra man) and an ATRT. Opening move is to make sure during deployment she can see units, Bikes in particular. I use her to hand out dodge tokens usually to herself and the fleets. Than take an aim token. Than do the bombardment. Go for bikes, you won’t kill one but hope to land two hits on them. If it’s triple bikes I try to hit all three other wise aim for snowies. If you are fighting Rebels use all three against troopers to pin them down before they get dodge tokens. I push to objectives and quickly as possible and then hunker down in cover. Once in position I find aim and fire is my rotation. Aim tokens help white dice a ton. Fleets are for the bikes or ATRTs. The ATRTs are there as cover and to help with Bikes or an ATST. I have found that people go after ATRTs first. I have seen countless times where multiple rounds are taken up with focus fire on them. I keep Leia hidden as much as possible while slowly moving Luke in to position usually round three to jump and be in the mist of of a squad to melee. If a squad is getting to lo close to your troopers use Jedi mind trick. I use it every game to good effect. Keep your troops in cover until it’s time to Move to capture objectives that have become contested. Token management can be tough. I always lay out one commander and their troops. This means that whatever is pulled from the pile usually is used for the twin whose card was not played. This list really requires you to play your Command cards well. I tend to alternate between The twins. Bombardment first than My ally is the Force or no time for sorrows, than the other, son of skywalker ,no time for sorrows, return of the Jedi this all depends on the situation too. The biggest key to this is the 15 point bid. You should be Blue player every time. I was able to get Key Positions twice. This allowed me to dig in quick and wait. Really look at the table and think about deployments look for good cover and areas where you can hold.

I removed Disarray mainly because moving to both sides of the table slows the game down, and I wanted to have all time focused on play. I removed Hostile Environment because it puts more limitations on the tactical moves than I prefer to deal with. I removed Breakthrough because I find it dull. My overall playstyle is to hit hard with bikes late in the first round and follow up immediately in the second round, then keep them in my opponent’s backfield to force them to deal with the onslaught until the bikes are destroyed. My preferred targets are squads to make them combat-ineffective early, but if I can take out a commander in a single round, I will concentrate fire. Bikes force the opponent to choose – either engage in defense and let the objectives go for a round or chase the objectives and get pummeled by the bikes. My use of the HH-12 usually gets questioned, but I find they give me great flexibility – I can deal with armor if needed, or drop 3 black dice on squads to bolster a focused attack – often a follow up to a bike attack. I use command cards in a variety of ways, but in the early rounds, I use them to maintain control of bike activations with a goal of activating bikes back-to-back from the end of Turn 1 to the beginning of Turn 2.

Play Style: I believe I am more of a reactive player so I make all my competitive lists as close to 800 points as possible. This puts my opponent in the driving seat when it comes to determining the objective/scenario and gives me an insight into what there play style is going to be. If I get a chance, I like to get rid of key positions as the game mode favors the blue player, however if my opponent manages to get key positions this still works out well for me as I then can be super aggressive with my bikes.

I had a feeling that majority of imperial players would be using this list or similar, valuing their bikes and using them to cause a lot of damage. I saw my bikes as expendable I knew I could use them to tie up enemy bikes and detract focus from the rest of my army which allowed me to keep everything at range with the DLT’s and allow my snow troopers to advance pretty much unhindered. By the time my opponents had dealt with my bikes I had already wiped 2-3 units using the snow troopers and DLT’s.

I only faced one Rebel opponent, by deploying second I managed to set up a flanking maneuver which allowed me to come round the back and wipe 2-3 units of rebel troopers before they had a chance to influence the game.

Play Style: I removed disarray because I never really liked it. I dropped reinforcements because I prefer to have everything out and active turn 1. And I dropped moisture vaporators because I didn't want to pack the minis with me.

The overall playstyle is to hit something hard with bikes, and follow up with the DLTs. My preferred targets are Luke and Leia, but I never feel bad if they're hiding and I have to take out an AT-RT instead.

The bikes are a great unit for tormenting the enemy, especially with three sets. If they target the bikes, they leave the white wall of terror to advance upon the objectives unmolested. But if you ignore them, they will shred you.

Command cards varies depending on the situation, but a typical game would see a round 1 maximum firepower targeting the enemy commander or an AT-RT, followed up with evasive maneuvers to give the speeders some extra staying power as they get into the thick of the enemy.

Play Style: This list is designed to be a strong all-comers list, not particularly strong into any matchup but also with no weaknesses. The general play style is that it comes in waves and asks the opponent a couple of hard questions on either end of the spectrum - "do you have an answer for fast troops?" "do you have an answer for heavy armor?". The best way to play this list is focus on the scenario first, advance towards the win condition while keeping the enemy suppressed at long range through the DLTs and the ATST. Once in position the Snowtroopers act as a speed bump or tarpit, advancing beyond your main forces and engaging and stopping the enemy before they reach your main force. From there you can continue to engage at range with the rest of your army. Knowing how to effectively use a fully upgraded ATST is key to piloting this list - see the ATST analysis for more info on how to do that.

Play Style: the main idea is to distract with 5 threats that can challenge the army of your opponent and keep it busy for 4 or 5 turns, while the other 5 activations are the true threat and work to win the game on quietly taking objectives. Luke the 2 ATRTs and your fleets move up to force a fight where they can. The fleets can use the ATRT as cover if the battlefield does not have any paths to get you safely to close range. Luke uses leap and reflexes, and my ally is the force to keep himself safe during the advance. Play like this is a fight you know you are not going to win. Focus on making sure as many of the enemy units only get 1 action a round. (Leia’s Coordinated Bombardment on turn 1 is very good at this.) It’s all in an effort to buy time and not straight up win the fight. Leia and her 4 squads of troopers move to the objectives (boxes, deployment zones, etc.). Take full advantage of the inspire 2 and take cover ability to keep you safe. Nimble is your biggest asset. Just by getting a dodge token up early means you are less likely to get shot because of the insane value of the keyword. and less shots means less suppression, freeing you up to make plays to earn points. If you do get pinned down No Time for Sorrows can win you games by moving you the extra few inches to score points or by getting you into better cover in a flash. Play aggressively with the Luke’s battle force and stay focused on the Blue ballet card with Leia and her troopers, by the time Luke’s army is dead your opponent does not have the time or rescores to swing the game back. Keep in mind you only have to hold on to your lead to the start of turn 7.

Notes: Won 1st place on day 3 of GenCon 2018 piloted by friend of the blog Ryan Sliwoski of STABcast

Play Style: This list has a lot of tricks, and knowing when to play which command card is the key to success. In general the Rebel Troopers should be focused on the objectives at hand with the support of Leia, while Luke and the AT-RTs can deal some damage and keep the enemies of the rebellion at bay long enough for the Rebel Troopers to complete their mission. Be aggressive with Luke, he is incredibly fast and deals a lot of damage - if you can get him into melee early using Jump, Force Push, and Environmental Gear your opponent will be forced to stop and deal with Luke where he is and that frees the rest of your forces to deal with the scenario. The AT-RT are equipped with Laser Canon instead of Rotary Canon to be able to deal with enemy AT-ST and AT-RT in the mirror match. If there is no enemy armor, which happens from time to time, use the AT-RT to move up and distract the enemy from your troopers. Use your number of activations to your advantage, if you are able to hold your more impactful activations to the end of a turn you are able to do more with them free from fear of recourse - Ideally this means always activating Luke last and threatening him as an option (except on turns in which he wants to go first to get back to safety or deal with an enemy before it has a chance to activate).

Play Style: This list ideally wants Major Offensive or Long March and Intercept the Transmissions or Key Positions, use your aggressive initiative bid to try and get a pair of these and try to select a condition that is least favorable to you opponent (but the deployment and objective are more important). When playing this list, you should try and keep the majority of units within range 3 of Vader and push forward aggressively towards an objective the first couple of turns with Vader leading from the front. Once you reach the objectives you intend to hold (2/3 on Intercept the Transmissions or Key Positions) you should play more conservatively - aim and shoot with the stormtroopers, splitting fire to maximize suppression output and threaten Vader as the melee monster that he is to try and deny the more contested objective (if you are able to get one of your preferred scenario pairings then you and your opponent should both have an objective in your back field and really contesting only one objective).

Notes: 1st Place Kingdom Con 2018 Nicholas Freeman. The Targeting Scopes on the stormtroopers can be exchanged for different gear if desired without changing the playstyle of the list.